Newsletter

Vision committee creating 'roadmap' for city's future

Members of the Visioning 2014 & Beyond steering committee listen to a presentation at City Hall on Saturday.

The process of creating a map of St. Augustine’s future is underway.

The Visioning 2014 & Beyond steering committee and others gathered at City Hall on Saturday to talk about the project, which involves members of the community in developing a vision for how the city should evolve.

“It’s the guiding document for the city,” said City Commissioner Roxanne Horvath, who is the chair of the visioning steering committee.

The city’s 1995 St. Augustine Vision Planning Project involved more than 200 community members working together in committees to come up with a plan, and last year the city launched a new visioning effort, according to the city’s website.

Saturday’s workshop was the first time that the steering committee met with group’s facilitator, Herb Marlowe, principal of consulting firm Analytica. Marlowe gave a presentation about the visioning process and led people in a few practice information-gathering exercises.

About 30 members of the public attended.

During one exercise he asked people to write down how they would like to feel about St. Augustine.

Some replies from The Alcazar Room:

“A sense of one community.”

“Delighted and proud.”

“A quaint, cultural village.”

“St. Augustine is a relaxed, laid back, historic place to visit.”

“Proud of progress and human rights ...”

The exercises included the public and the steering committee.

The steering committee includes Cathy Brown, former executive director of the Council on Aging, former St. Augustine Mayor Len Weeks, as well as people from local businesses and institutions.

Several people spoke about what they would like to see happen in St. Augustine and made suggestions to the committee about the project.

Wolfgang Schau, of St. Augustine, said the old vision was not much of a vision. He suggested that the city should get more tourist dollars by having more public transportation — having people park outside of the city and pay for public transportation to travel in. He also suggested putting utility cables underground.

“You have to think a little bit more forward,” he said.

Nancy Shaver, of St. Augustine, said the committee needs a fact-based picture of the city before members can suggest a future. She said accurate data is needed on the number of visitors to the city.

“The elephant in the room for us is always, ‘How many tourists do we have?’” she said.

Marlowe said the first step of the project is designing a visioning process that fits St. Augustine. He said there are many ways to go about it.

“Our first phase is to really understand this community,” he said.

During the presentation, Marlowe asked people to say what they believe could happen in St. Augustine in the future.

Some replied:

“No more gas-powered cars.”

“Better traffic flow.”

“Downtown is unlivable for residents.”

“Hurricane.”

“No cars in the city.”

“Key West meets Disney.”

Visioning is about leading from the future, and for St. Augustine that means trying to project what the city could be 5 to 20 years from now, Marlowe said. Visioning is about asking people what future they want.

“ ... we’re not dealing with a crises here,” he said.

“We’re leading from a proactive stance ...”

ON THE WEB:

The Visioning 2014 & Beyond town hall meeting will be 9 a.m. to noon on April 26 at The Treasury on the Plaza, 24 Cathedral Place. To see the recording of the April 5 visioning workshop, go to www.cosatv.com. The video is listed under miscellaneous videos.